Trail Mix: The Campaign Trail To The Outdoors
The 2019 Federal Election is just around the corner on October 21st (not sure who to vote for? Check out CBC’s excellent Vote Compass, and party platform break-down) and parties are starting to announce promises in hopes of securing your vote. While this isn’t an article to promote one party over another, much to our surprise camping actually came up as a campaign promise by Justin Trudeau.
“The joy of roasting marshmallows with the kids, or jumping in to the lake on a hot summer day, you just can’t beat it. But not all Canadians are so lucky. And we want to change that. That’s why a re-elected Liberal government will expand the Learn to Camp program so that by the time they reach grade 8, all Canadian kids will have had the opportunity to experience camping and learn important outdoor skills.”
“A Camping Experience for Every Kid in Canada” would cost taxpayers $150 million to create $2,000 travel bursaries to send 75,000 families camping for up to four days in a national or provincial park. The other parties have been focusing on hot topics such as the climate, refugees, and cutting spending to help reign in our deficit so naturally this announcement drew out the cynics in the media (and in the public).
It’s a shame really… the election aside, how often does one of Canada’s best features ever get this much headline attention? A 2017 Angus Reid study found that 80 per cent of those survey noted Canada’s beautiful outdoors as our key identifier and yet through-out the study here are some common reasons as to why they aren’t going outside…
73% - the weather
43% - too many bugs
21% - not having Wi-Fi or Internet
Yikes!
In an increasingly busy world where fewer and fewer Canadians aren’t going outside, an actual incentive to get people outdoors seems like a well timed idea.
We all have fond memories of spending time outdoors in our youth and in one way or another it has had an impact on who we are today. This election has been riddled with attack ads, fake news, embarrassing photos, and people talking over each other, maybe it’s time for people to step away from it all and spend more time in the great outdoors.
